Recipe: Texas Tumbleweeds Sweet Chili

Mary Poppins sang about a spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down, This recipe doubles down on that strategy and includes two spoonfuls of sugar, which makes this chili a delight as it goes down!

You'll need a saucepan to brown the hamburger, and a slow cooker (like a Crock-Pot) to simmer your chili. If you don't have a slow cooker, you may use a big pan, and, if you're using a pan for the simmering, it's perfectly acceptable to use the same pan to brown the hamburger! (Fewer dishes to wash) I like to use my Crock Pot because it's easier to regulate the low heat for simmering, and I can just put the whole pan right into the refrigerator.


2 lbs hamburger
Garlic salt
Pepper
4 tbsp chopped garlic
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
2 cans diced tomatoes (14.5 oz cans)
1 can tomato sauce (28oz)
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can red beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can corn (15 oz)
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp sugar
1 cup water

Substitutions:
Many grocery stores sell ground beef labelled as chili meat. The only real difference that I see is that they use a cap on the grinder with larger holes in it..and then charge more for it.
You can mix and match on the varieties of beans: don't like black beans? Omit them and use two cans of kidney beans instead of one. It's up to you! Basically, any combination of four cans of beans will do the trick.

If you want a wee bit of a kick, you can chop up a little cilantro and add it to the simmering chili. Don't be afraid to experiment.

1. Brown the hamburger.

Put the hamburger into a saucepan and cook on medium-high heat. Season the meat with garlic salt and pepper. As the burger begins to cook, add the chopped garlic and the chopped onions. Crumble the meat as it cooks. When the meat is browned, this step is complete, even if it looks like the onions need more cooking -- they'll finish when the chili stews.

2. Add the canned ingredients

While the meat is browning, open up all those cans! Diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, the corn, and all of those beans. Pour each into the slow-cooker. (If you're cooking the meat in the same pan that you'll be using to simmer the chili, obviously, you'll have to wait for the meat to finish before you can add these canned ingredients.)

3. Add the remaining ingredients

Stir in the chili powder, cumin, and sugar, add the water, and stir the while mixture. Add the meat/garlic/onion mixture and stir again.

4. Simmer on low for four hours.

5. Enjoy your meal!

Garnish with more chopped onions, shredded cheese, and/or sour cream.

My Geographic Extremes - September 2015

NOTE: UPDATED FOR 2016
Link here



I love to travel.  Even so, I still haven't managed to get out of North America; the closest I've come is the island of Curaçao, about 25 miles north of the Venezuelan coast.  Interestingly, three of the four compass point extremes are located on islands.

Here are my current geographic extremes (as of September 25, 2015):

NORTHERNMOST: 51.45° N

On the Trans-Canada Highway, about 8 km NW of Lake Louise, Alberta

51° 27' 30.2652" N
116° 16' 7.3848" W
Saturday, May 23, 2015

Plot on map

SOUTHERNMOST: 12.07° N

Caracas Baai, Curaçao

12° 4' 8.439" N
68° 51' 42.1524"

Tuesday, June 13, 2007

Plot on map

EASTERNMOST: 62.68° W

South Friars Beach, St Kitts

17° 16' 23.304" N
62° 40' 24.3042" W
Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Plot on map

WESTERNMOST: 158.10° W

Haleiwa, Oahu, Hawaii

21° 35' 35.448" N
158° 6' 12.5892" W
Monday, February 14, 2011

Plot on map


Conversions from Decimal to Degrees /Minutes/Seconds:
http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/DDDMMSS-decimal.html

Six Things You'll Love About Living in Utah

This post was written from the perspective of someone who grew up in the Central Valley of California and moved to Utah. 


1. Awesome Scenery. Let's face it, it's beautiful here. Every day, you wake up and see the sun rising over mountains in the east and then watch it set over mountains in the west. The mountains are so prominent that you become numb to just how special it is; it almost becomes "ho-hum" scenery because you see it every single day. The rest of the state is filled with amazing red rock formations and five national parks that people come from all over the world to see.  We've got it all within a couple hours drive!

2. Few 100° days.  From May to September, people in the San Joaquin Valley are battered by scorching heat. Triple digit heat can be recorded on any day, and it's not considered to be an anomaly until it gets above 110°. After a couple of summers along the Wasatch Front, you'll become a heat wimp and start turning on your air conditioner when temperatures climb into the upper eighties. I'm not saying that it never gets above 100° in Salt Lake but you can nearly always count those days with the fingers on one hand.

3. Mormons. They take a bad wrap from some quarters, but, let's face it: Mormons make Utah the great state that it is. You don't have to be Mormon to live here -- I'm not -- but give the Mormons props for what they've given us. We have a clean state with a low crime rate, built by people who work hard. Utahans have more kids per family than any other state, and that makes it a great place to raise kids.  You can count on tons of family-friendly places, and lots of other kids for your kids to play no matter where you live.

4. The Mountain Time Zone.  Two hours behind Eastern Time, it's perfectly situated so that live events are televised at a convenient hour but don't keep you up until midnight. In California, World Series games begin at 5:07pm, which is too early to get home before the first pitch.  On the east coast, Sunday night football games regularly stretch out to end after midnight, which is too late for fans who have a job.  The Mountain Time Zone is the Goldilocks time zone: not too early, and not too late.

5. Great Air Service. Because we have a Delta hub in Salt Lake we have nonstop service to Europe, Mexico, Canada, and all over the country. The presence of all other major carriers keeps fares reasonable. No more long drives to San Francisco or Los Angeles to get a decent fare. Parking is cheap, too: only $9 per day at the airport and even less at some of the nearby private lots.

6. Outdoors Lifestyles. With incredible mountains so close by, recreation opportunities are everywhere, and lots people who live in Utah avail themselves of those opportunities. Skiing, hiking, snowboarding, snowshoeing, running, hunting, camping, boating, mountain biking, you name it! If it can be done outdoors, Utahns are doing it!

Standard Time is Different than Daylight Time

The official Twitter Account for the NFL on FOX tweeted out the following today:

Set your alarm clocks - football starts at 9am/EST 6am/PST this week! #DETvsATL https://t.co/bKhHal0sl4
— FOX Sports NFL (@NFLonFOX) October 21, 2014

This game will be played in London, and since the game will be on TV so much earlier than the usual Sunday games, FOX wants to make sure that people know about it so they don't miss it.

The only problem is that, anybody who follows the direction from this tweet literally will turn the game on one hour too late.  The game does not kick off at 9am EST, it kicks off at 9am EDT.  What's the difference?  9am Eastern Standard Time is one hour later than 9am Eastern Daylight Time.

"Daylight" time refers to Daylight Saving Time, the official setting in place across most of North America from the second Sunday in March until the first Sunday in November.  When we observe Daylight Saving Time, we move our clocks forward one hour, which means that the hour that would naturally be 9am becomes 10am. Thus, 9am EST is actually 10am EDT, and anyone tuning in at 9am EST is tuning in at 10am EDT and thus has missed the first hour of the game.

Being a computer guy, there's one more angle:  Eastern Standard Time is defined as UTC-5, which means five hours earlier than GMT (or UTC, the two are synonymous).  Eastern Daylight Time is UTC-4.  For those of us who deal with applications and programs that are time zone aware, this difference matters.

You may think that this is just an academic exercise and that this mistake doesn't matter, but consider this:  there are two states in the United States that do not observe Daylight Saving Time, Arizona and Hawaii. Arizona is in the Mountain Time Zone (UTC-7), which is two hours earlier than Eastern time.  However, during the summer, when most of the country advances the clocks one hour, Arizona remains on Standard time, meaning that it is three earlier in Phoenix than it is in New York during that period.

I live in Utah, which is also on Mountain Time.  Throughout the winter, clocks are the same in Salt Lake City as they are in Phoenix, but when we in Utah spring forward, from MST to MDT, Arizona remains on MST, putting Phoenix on the same time as Los Angeles.  Los Angeles is in the Pacific Time Zone (UTC-8), which becomes PDT during the summer.  PDT is UTC-7, which is identical to MST.  It does matter whether or not you get it right.

My Geographic Extremes - As of October 2014

I love to travel.  Even so, I still haven't managed to get out of North America; the closest I've come is the island of Curaçao, about 25 miles north of the Venezuelan coast.  Interestingly, three of the four compass point extremes are located on islands.

Here are my current geographic extremes:

NORTHERNMOST: 45.44° N

Rideau Circle, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

45° 26' 40.7616" N
75° 41' 32.5248" W
Monday, October 1, 2012

Plot on map

As it turns out, this was in error. I was in Vancouver two years prior to this, and all of Vancouver is north of the 49th parallel.  I have posted a newer version of this page, dated September 25, 2015.

SOUTHERNMOST: 12.07° N

Caracas Baai, Curaçao

12° 4' 8.439" N
68° 51' 42.1524"

Tuesday, June 13, 2007

Plot on map

EASTERNMOST: 62.68° W

South Friars Beach, St Kitts

17° 16' 23.304" N
62° 40' 24.3042" W
Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Plot on map

WESTERNMOST: 158.10° W

Haleiwa, Oahu, Hawaii

21° 35' 35.448" N
158° 6' 12.5892" W
Monday, February 14, 2011

Plot on map


Conversions from Decimal to Degrees /Minutes/Seconds:
http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/DDDMMSS-decimal.html

Sloppy, sloppy

When I was young, I had complete respect for journalism. I thought that journalists were very careful to get the facts straight and use correct grammar, and, in those rare occasions when they weren't careful, I believed that there were editors who would step in and fix the problems before the stories went to publication.

I don't know whether I was wrong in the past or if things have changed in more recent times, but I keep seeing stories written with really sloppy writing and bad facts. Rather than shake my head and ignore them, I think I'd rather shake my head and then post them here.

I'll start it off with this one-paragraph blurb from CBS MarketWatch talking about some problems at LAX Airport.  The problem this story is in the time conversion. The text says that the halt in flights began at 2:20 pm "local time," which in Los Angeles would be Pacific time, but the writer then converts that time to 11:20 am Eastern.  Yes there is a three-hour time difference between Los Angeles and Eastern time, but Eastern time is three hours later than Pacific time. At 2:20 pm in Los Angeles, it 5:20 pm on the East Coast; it's 11:20 am in Honolulu (at least during the summer).

Maybe this seems ticky-tacky, but this time conversion is not a complicated fact.  The story is just sloppy.

Airfares Make No Sense

Look at the following screenshot

This is a search for a one-way flight from Salt Lake City to Sacramento on Friday, June 6, 2014.   There are four non-stop flights on the route, although I'm showing only two of them in the screenshot, and all four of them are $500 for the one-way flight.

Now, examine the next screenshot, which depicts a search for a roundtrip flight on the same route:

The flights on the outbound portion of the roundtrip itinerary are precisely the same flights that are shown in the one-way search above, but, by flying rountrip, these flights are $126 cheaper than the one-way.

The lesson here is obvious:  If you need to fly one-way on this date, buy a roundtrip ticket and throw away the return portion of the trip.  You'll get your one-way trip for $374 instead of $500.